


Senior Year

by chacusha



Category: Bravely Default (Video Game) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bravely Secret Santa 2020, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Griede's bad parenting, M/M, Obliviousness, Parties, Truth or Dare, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:21:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28339149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chacusha/pseuds/chacusha
Summary: It's senior year and Janne has plenty to keep him busy: homework, college applications, social events. In Janne's case, they're all just reasons to hang out with Yew. Bravely high school AU with JanYew fluff.
Relationships: Edea Lee/Ringabel, Janne Angard/Yew Geneolgia, Tiz Arrior/Agnès Oblige
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Senior Year

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SofyTrancy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SofyTrancy/gifts).



> I wanted to write a JanYew fic but the angst and hurt/comfort wasn't happening (this ended up 100% fluff) but I made it an AU and threw a bunch of other characters in there, so I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Thanks to Komatsu for giving me ideas for how to end this fic.

\- October 13th -

"My father's coming home next weekend."

Janne looked up from his work to glance at Yew sitting cross-legged on his bed. Yew had said this in a completely even tone of voice, his head not even raised from the textbook in his lap. However, Janne knew Yew -- and Yew's father -- well enough to know that there was a note of apprehension there.

When Yew's father was out of town -- which was often -- Yew seemed like a normal kid. He liked going to social events and sports events; he liked hanging out; he liked inviting Janne over like this to study or just hang out. He was somewhat awkward, but nice enough that people flocked to be his friend and he was all-in-all quite popular.

When his father was around, though, Yew got quieter and more withdrawn. He was always saying he needed to "focus on his studies," presumably in preparation for college applications, even though Yew aced exams without even studying and everyone knew he was going to get accepted into Yale anyway, where his father and grandfather et cetera had attended.

Janne had his own set of suspicions that the real reason behind Yew's insistence on studying was that Griede just didn't think that any of the people in Al-Khampis had anything to offer Yew and he was better off not befriending any of them. Save all that effort socializing and attending parties for when there were actual people worth rubbing elbows with, was the thinking. Even though Al-Khampis was nothing to sneeze at in terms of its size, wealth, and the quality of its students, Yew's father had higher ambitions.

Well, that was fine with Janne. He had his own set of ambitions. Ones that might even throw a wrench or two in Griede Geneologia's plans.

"So I take it that means you're not going to Edea's party then?"

"My father will want to spend time together while he's here..." Yew lapsed into silence, his full attention toward his textbook and his homework again, apparently not having anything more to say. Janne rested his head on a hand, musing that Yew already seemed just a little bit more boring, as if the very thought of spending time with his father was already having the typical effect.

Well, that was fine too. Janne could take advantage of Yew's concentration and studiousness, and use this quiet time to quickly finish off his homework. When he was done, he could get Yew to check his work and explain the problems he got wrong. Math was far from Janne's specialty, but he wanted top grades, and lucky for him, Yew was carrying him through this calculus class. Without him, Janne could well have fallen behind in the first three weeks and just stopped caring.

"Good thing I'm friends with Mr. Brainiac Nerd," Janne said aloud as he returned to the exercises page in his textbook. "Best thing that happened to me in high school."

Weirdly, Janne actually finished the problem set before Yew. As he was waiting for Yew to finish up the last of the problems, Janne idly poked around at the other things Yew kept on his desk: a stapler, a pencil-holder, a classy-looking lamp, that diary that Yew had been keeping since he was who-knows-how-old. Janne picked the notebook up to see if he could tell by looking at the condition of the pages how much of it Yew had filled with his writing when a note fell out of the diary and dropped onto the floor.

"What's this?" Janne asked, eyes scanning the note. There were what looked like generic-sounding company names followed by phone numbers listed on the note in Yew's neat handwriting. Once he had read its contents, Janne handed it to Yew, who took it and also looked over it.

"Oh, this?" Yew said quickly. "Oh, it's nothing. Yeah, nothing."

Janne rolled his eyes. "Wanna try that again, a bit more convincing this time?"

Yew was quiet. As there were only three people in this huge empty house -- him and Janne and the butler -- the quiet in the room extended to the whole mansion. And yet Yew's eyes nervously flitted around the room as if the walls themselves had ears.

He took a deep breath and sighed. "The truth is, um... I was thinking about hiring someone in order to find Denys... I haven't been having any luck. And I'll be 18 soon! And I have enough money."

Janne studied Yew silently. "You still haven't heard anything from him, then? Not a single word, a letter, a birthday present, nothing? For, what -- six years?"

Yew shook his head. Nothing.

When Yew was a kid, apparently his dad and his half-brother had gotten into some huge argument, the end result of which was that his dad had disowned Denys and thrown him out of the house. Or Denys had left on his own and decided to never come back -- it wasn't exactly clear to Janne which was the case, but whichever it was, it had to have been a _serious_ disagreement. Janne was the only one outside the Geneolgia household who knew about it at all, and even Yew wouldn't tell him what the argument had been about.

"How do you know your brother's not... you know... dead?"

"He's alive! I'm sure of it!"

Janne sighed. He of course knew Yew would say that. Sometimes, Janne pitied him. In the best case, they were looking at six years of zero contact with Yew, all because of something his dad did. "You know, your dad is a huge dick, right?" He took the note back from Yew and placed it between a random pair of blank pages in Yew's diary. He shut the diary and waved it in Yew's direction. "Best your old man doesn't find out about this," he said quietly, putting it back in its place on Yew's desk.

Yew only nodded gravely.

\- November 20th -

Yew didn't end up going to that particular party at Edea's house but there were others, like one the week before Thanksgiving at Magnolia's host family's house, when Griede _was_ out of town.

" _Quelle surprise!_ How good that you could make it, Yew!" Magnolia said after she had opened the door. "And Janne! Come in, come in."

They entered, offering the host their contributions to the party: appetizers (crackers, cheese, and prosciutto from Yew) and various spirits (from Janne). Before Magnolia could close the door behind them, the next set of guests arrived: Ringabel and Alternis Dim, also bringing some more booze.

Before long, the house was full of people and everybody had helped themselves to plates of snacks and drinks, and broken off into smaller groups based on their particular interests. Janne had followed Yew and so had gotten sucked into playing a board game with him, Agnès, Tiz, and Bella (the quiet nerds). They set up in the basement which was pretty divorced from the rest of the party and therefore chill. Janne initially tried to play but he'd drunk too much and was too tipsy to actually keep track of the complicated set of rules and whose turn it was so ended up forfeiting and bowing out early. He contented himself with reclining himself on a couch and watching the remaining players take their turns that seemed to last five minutes each and involve large amounts of debate and negotiation.

Yew seemed like he was having fun. Bella not so much, but then again she never seemed to react to anything positively or negatively. Agnès was, as usual, seriously thinking about every move as she nibbled at her "rabbit food": baby carrots and celery and hummus, in between sips of water. The most buttoned-down person Janne knew. Tiz, it seemed, was using some of his turns to help Agnès at the expense of the other players. That was always his way; his crush on Agnès was _so_ obvious to everyone except her (and, well, Yew tended to not pick up on things like that too) -- it was so _adorable_ that Janne felt like gagging.

After a few minutes of this, Janne got up and decided to check what the other groups were up to. The living room contained a small dance party, with Praline energetically singing to the blaring pop dance music and dragging the more shy people on the periphery into the dance. A one-woman party, that one. She and Artemia and Minette managed to persuade Kikyo to dance most of the time, but there were a couple of stubborn people who were sitting on chairs by the wall that refused to be pulled in -- Jackal and Alternis, who both had expressions that could best be described as scowls and spent most of their time scrolling on their phones. They were probably here, though, because it was the best way to avoid having to participate in the board games downstairs or the game of Truth or Dare happening in the dining room.

Janne passed through that group next on the way to get more food and drink from the kitchen. Immediately, he was flagged down by Aimee: "Janne! Wanna join?"

Janne didn't think Truth or Dare was a particularly interesting game, but unlike board games it was at least something he could handle doing at the moment.

"Sure, whatever."

"Edea, truth or dare?" Ringabel asked.

Edea was 100% a dare type but if it was Ringabel asking, she always said picked truth -- as she did now.

"Tell me your ideal date! Be truthful now."

Edea sighed, but nevertheless laid out a date consisting of a movie watched at home while eating dinner (burgers, plus shakes with sprinkles and whipped cream on top), either followed by a trip to the ice cream parlor or preceded by a trip to the cake shop, depending on what mood she was in.

Ringabel diligently took notes of this in his journal. Aimee's eyes lit up at the mention of the local cake shop. "Hey, Edea, wanna go there with me sometime next week?"

"You bet I do," was Edea's answer.

"Oho, Aimee, you want to visit your crush?" Magnolia asked.

"He's so-o-o-o cute!" Aimee said, ebullient.

"Anyway, Magnolia, truth or dare?" Edea continued.

"Hm... dare."

"Okay, I dare you to run outside and shout 'Goooo Al-Khampis Killer Ants!' in front of your neighbors' doors."

" _Ah la vache,_ between Praline's loud music and you, you guys want to make all my neighbors hate me. All right then."

She put on a pair of shoes and ran outside to the neighbors on either side and across the street and shouted the sports cheer. The others clustered on the driveway in the chilly November air and watched until she came running back and they all went inside again.

"All right, Janne! Truth or dare?" Magnolia asked.

He considered for a moment. It was hard to choose because he found both of them equally boring. "Dare," he said finally.

"All right, I dare you to... confess to the person you have a crush on."

Edea elbowed Magnolia. "Hey, isn't that both a truth and a dare?"

"Oh? I suppose it is. Should I give another?"

But it made little difference to Janne. He got to his feet and walked out of the room. Behind him, he could hear an outburst of nervous laughter as people realized it was someone already in the house, and speculations about who it could be.

Janne walked halfway down the set of stairs to the basement on unsteady legs, and pointed a finger at Yew. "Hey, Yew!"

Yew, still playing and apparently in the middle of a turn, started and turned. "Uh, huh -- what?"

"I think you're cute."

"Huh? Oh, uh, okay."

Janne then walked back to the dining room table and sat down. See? Boring.

 _"Ah la vache!"_ Magnolia murmured. "I don't know which was weirder -- that confession or that reaction..."

"It's your turn to ask, Janne."

"Fine, Ringabel, truth or dare?"

"Hm... dare!"

"Okay then." He paused to think of something. "I dare you to tie up all that hair in front into a ponytail for the rest of tonight."

Ringabel let out a strangled sound. "B-but I spent so long styling it this morning!"

"Yes, yes!" Edea said, smiling wickedly. "Unicorn ponytail! Do it!"

After that, Janne began to lose interest in the game. In fact, at some point, he must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he remembered was Yew waking him up and asking him if he needed a ride home, which Janne gratefully accepted. Yew's car was full with others who had walked or were similarly too drunk to drive.

"You're a real Boy Scout, Yew!" Janne remarked loudly from the shotgun seat. He was too drunk for volume control.

Janne was the last one to be dropped off. As they drove, Yew spoke to him: "So, uh... you think I'm cute, huh?" he asked.

Was it Janne's imagination or was he blushing? "Yeah, what of it?"

"Ah, nothing. Just... I was hoping for something more like... handsome, or charming. Hunky?"

Janne let out a laugh. "Don't kid yourself, Yew. Your aesthetic is always going to be cute."

Yew also laughed, a soft chuckle. "I guess you're right."

Janne considered (not for the first time) leaning in and kissing Yew. Thought became action -- except Janne missed Yew's face by quite a bit and landed on his shoulder instead. Well, that was fine. He was too tired to do it right.

The rest of the car ride was a soothing silence, and then Yew pulled over to the curb outside Janne's house. Janne got out of the car, thanking him for the ride.

"Yep. Take care of yourself, Janne," Yew said as Janne waved an arm in goodbye.

\- December 18th -

Janne got an early Christmas present -- a week before Christmas, a letter arrived in the mail. He took one look at the sender and immediately began tearing the seal open, pulling the papers out of the envelope. The envelope was big -- that was a good sign, right?

A couple of minutes later, after reading the cover letter twice just to make sure, he texted Yew asking when was the soonest he could meet up. The second he arrived at Yew's house, he handed him the letter.

Yew's eyes flowed over the page, widened, and shot up to look at Janne. "You... you got into Yale? I mean -- you _applied_ for Yale? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, it'd be awkward if I got rejected. I didn't want to get your hopes up."

"Wow, well, congrats!" Yew threw his arms around Janne in an exuberant hug.

It had probably helped Janne's application that he was such a, well, fencing prodigy. Back in July this year, he'd managed to place third in Division I of the national championships for foil. Janne had reached out to the Yale fencing coach to make sure they were aware of Janne's accomplishments. And he'd kept his grades up all throughout high school, had taken all the classes Yew had taken... And he'd done it. His plans had actually worked out.

"You're going to Yale too, right, Yew? Because that'd be real awkward if it was just me."

"Yeah, of course I am. Wow, I'm so happy for you, Janne. For both of us!"

For a moment, the two of them just stood there staring at each other, faces flushed with heady excitement. Then without thought, it seemed, both of them took the other's face in hand and leaned in to plant a kiss on the other's lips.

It had to have been very much without thought -- in the next instant Yew pulled away, stammering. "Sorry! I -- I don't know why I did that. That was -- I was just so happy, and --"

Janne stared him straight in the eye. "Yew. Are you apologizing for kissing me?"

"Um, no -- yes -- I mean, uh... only if you didn't like it?"

"If I...?" Janne shook his head. "God, Yew, you're hopeless."

"Does that mean..."

 _"Hopeless,"_ Janne repeated, leaning in to kiss Yew again.

They stood there in the Geneolgia mansion, arms around each other, their lips meeting again and again. This was a new development -- completely unexpected but Janne wasn't complaining.

There were just a few more weeks in this year, and next year was already looking pretty rosy. A year from now, Yew was going to be in a new state, away from his father's overbearing influence, meeting new people and learning whatever his nerdy scholar heart desired, able to go looking for his older brother if he wished. And as he did so, Janne would be right there, by his side.


End file.
